Chosen Soldier - Dick Couch [106]
“You officers will have a tremendous responsibility when you go to your groups. But before you leave here I have to be satisfied—completely satisfied—that I can trust you with the responsibility and welfare of ten Special Forces NCOs. You enlisted men also have a responsibility. I have to be convinced that you can do your job—that you can lead and follow as a member of a Special Forces ODA team. It’s very simple. Everyone in this room is going to war. Think about it, gentlemen, and good luck.”
“FEET!” someone calls from the rear of the auditorium, and there is a scramble as the class rises. Lieutenant Colonel Sandoz steps to the side of the room to be replaced by Command Sergeant Major Baxter.
“That’s it, men. We do our job; you do yours. No more, and certainly no less.” Baxter consults his notes. “You each know the location of your respective company areas and where you are supposed to report after you leave here. Some of the finest first sergeants and trainers in Special Forces are waiting for you. Don’t disappoint them. You’re dismissed.”
The officer candidates and the prospective weapons, engineering, and communications sergeants head off for their respective training companies. The next time they’ll be in the same room will be in one of the two big classrooms at Camp Mackall when they begin Phase IV. That is close to three months in the future. Most of them will be there, but not all. None of them are thinking about that right now. What lies ahead for each man is months of hard work and the mastery of a dizzying array of technical information. The 18 Delta candidates from Phase II Class 1-05 will never rejoin the others, except by chance as teammates on an ODA at an active Special Forces group. The Special Forces medical sergeant curriculum is an intensive, twelve-month course that is both demanding and technical. This scattering of Class 1-05 into the various 18-series military occupational specialty (MOS) training curriculums presents a special challenge for me.
Up to this time, I’ve had the luxury of tagging along after a class, a student ODA, or an individual candidate as they went about their business. In most cases, the journey of one man mirrored the journey of the class. Now there are five training venues that are going on at the same time. Most of this training is conducted at Fort Bragg, so now I’ll have an hour commute from my quarters at Camp Mackall to whichever training site or classroom that I wish to attend. It’ll be a busy three months. And while I’ll spend time at all venues, most of my time will be with the officers. If, in the words of Captain Walt Carson, the selection phase company commander, “Special Forces is an officer-led, enlisted-run organization,” then why so much time with the officers? Every soldier on an ODA team, officer and enlisted, is a leader. Yet the enlisted soldiers, be they medics or communications sergeants, will usually join an ODA as the junior medic or the junior communications sergeant. To call them simply technicians would undervalue the versatility of these men, but the new 18 Bravos, Charlies, Deltas, and Echos will have the luxury of playing a role on the team. In most cases, they will be supervised and mentored by veteran team members. The enlisted leadership on an ODA will come from senior sergeants, specifically the 18 Zulu team sergeant and the 18 Foxtrot intelligence sergeant. Many of these men will have been on the job for close to two decades. In Carson’s words, they have the experience to “run” the team as well as to lead in selected operational roles. During Phase III of Special Forces training, the enlisted soldiers will focus on the technical material within their specialties. Their leadership role in an ODA, certainly in the key leadership positions,